Love Bound in Ice: 3 (Werewolf Sentinels) Read online

  Continuing to suck at her breast, Ketah shifted half off her as he trailed his hand down the flat plane of her stomach to the top of her jeans. He undid them and shoved his hand inside the front, brushing his fingers against the material covering her pussy.

  He released her nipple and rubbed his cheek against it. “I can feel how wet you are through your panties.”

  She gasped as Ketah plunged his hand inside her panties and caressed her pussy. A finger dipped into her wet opening. He gathered some of her juices and circled her clit with the same digit. Haven squeezed her inner walls around it when it thrust into her again, taking her in shallow strokes.

  Soon a second finger joined the first, plunging deeper. She rode the digits, edging ever closer to an orgasm. The hard ridge of Ketah’s cock ground against her hip as he rocked into her. His head lay pillowed on her breast as he worked her. The sound of their harsh breathing filled her ears.

  “I’m going to come,” Haven said with a low groan.

  “Let go. Fly for me.”

  Ketah’s fingers plunged faster, angling up so he hit her G-spot. Haven lifted her hips to match the pace he set. She was so close. Her body shattered as an intense climax took her over. Her pussy clutched and released the digits that still slid in and out of her. She stiffened beneath Ketah and moaned. Once the last wave of pleasure hit her, she went limp.

  Ketah hurriedly undid his jeans and shoved them down to spring his erection. He brought her hand to it and had her pump it up and down his length. He then made a sound between a groan and a growl, his hips thrusting. It only took a couple of strokes until he came as well, his cum shooting onto her stomach. They both fought to catch their breath. Even though Ketah had reached release his cock was still hard in Haven’s hand. She stroked him once before he stopped her.

  “Enough, Haven.”

  “You’re still hard, though.”

  “I’m fine. We’re going to stop here.”

  “Why? Don’t you want to…”

  “Make love to you? More than you can possibly know, but I don’t think you’re ready for that yet. You’re still unsure of me. If I’m to prove I want something that will be lasting with you, we’re not going to rush into anything.”

  Haven blinked up at Ketah. Some of the wall she’d put up to safeguard her heart against him cracked ever so slightly. That he wanted to take his time, to let her get to know him better before they went beyond heavy petting definitely took him out of the same class as her father. It showed Haven that Ketah wasn’t selfish, only thinking of his pleasure first.

  He pushed off her and stood. “Where’s your washroom? I’ll get a cloth to clean you up.”

  “I only have the one bathroom, which is upstairs. And you can find clean cloths in the linen closet beside it.”

  “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” Ketah bent and gave her a quick kiss before heading for the stairs.

  Haven heard the water turn on in the bathroom a short while later. If Ketah kept this up, he’d soon have her wall torn down and have wormed his way into her heart. Maybe he wasn’t what she thought most gorgeous guys were like. Maybe he’d told the truth about his being nothing like her father. A tiny voice inside her pointed out Ketah could be acting this way because he knew that was what she wanted. She quickly squashed that idea, not wanting to give it life. She couldn’t think it if she wanted this to even have half a chance of working out. She’d take it one day at a time.

  * * * * *

  Ketah didn’t stay very late at Haven’s before he decided it would be best for him to go home. He would have wanted nothing more than to spend the night in her arms, but that would have been pushing things. Haven wasn’t ready for him to be that possessive of her. And once he spent one night with her, he’d want every one after that.

  His mating urge had increased by a small degree as well after he’d come in her hand. Until he claimed her as his own, finding release other than deep inside his mate’s body would have the same effect on it. But that wouldn’t stop him from sharing pleasure with Haven. He needed the closeness that would bring. And it would help bond his mate to him, make her learn to trust him.

  After giving Haven one last kiss that would have to last him through the rest of the night until he saw her again the next day, Ketah headed home. For his very first date, he thought it had gone well. He did have to tell his wolf brothers about the movie, and how 3D seemed all too real. It also showed he still had more to learn about this new world he’d awakened into.

  He arrived home to find Brice sitting in the living room with everyone else. The pack leader’s mate, Marta, was there as well. Ketah stepped into the room and looked around. “What’s going on?”

  Edensaw waved him over. Ketah took a seat on the floor close to the couch where his alpha sat with Cassidy, Brice and Marta. “Brice got some news in regard to Tanner,” Edensaw said.

  Ketah looked from Edensaw to Brice, then everyone else in the room. It was obvious the news hadn’t been good. “What is it?”

  Brice answered him. “I had an unexpected visit from a lone wolf earlier this evening. He wasn’t originally from my pack. It seems any lone wolf Tanner considers an acquaintance he’s getting in contact with, inviting them to Juneau. When they do meet up, Tanner asks them to join this new pack he belongs to. He also promises them immortality, that his pack leader is able to give it to them as he’d given it to Tanner. The lone wolf said Tanner’s eyes were black and that his scent had changed. He didn’t smell like a normal werewolf.”

  Ketah looked at Edensaw. “The dark wolves are really here.” He said it as a statement rather than a question. “The two who attacked Carson, Noah and Wachei weren’t the only ones then.”

  His alpha nodded. “Looks like it. It would explain why we’ve felt darkness slowly growing. Whoever is Tanner’s new pack leader, he must be the evil the shaman had seen coming. And he must be using dark magic to hide his presence in Juneau from us.”

  Ketah turned his attention back to Brice. “Does the lone wolf know where to find Tanner and his new pack?”

  “No. Tanner only gave him the barest of information. The lone wolf said he’d have to think about it, though he has no intention of taking him up on his offer. He promised to give Tanner his answer in a couple of days in a prearranged meeting place. We’re going to follow Tanner from there to his new pack.”

  That is if everything went smoothly and Tanner didn’t spot them. Ketah knew the best laid plans didn’t always work out. But if this did go off without any problem, there was a good chance they could take out the dark wolves in one confrontation. There couldn’t be too many of them if Tanner was still recruiting lone wolves.

  “Should I be worried about my mate’s safety?” Ketah asked.

  “I think it would be a good idea if you claimed her before the meeting is supposed to take place with Tanner,” Edensaw replied. “We’re not sure what this new pack leader has planned.”

  Ketah sighed. “That’s going to be a bit of a problem. Haven is still keeping me emotionally at arm’s length. She doesn’t trust me not to hurt her. If I push I could send her running.”

  Brice spoke up. “Claim her and she won’t be able to run.”

  He shook his head at the pack leader. “That’s what you told Wachei. Eryn did run and didn’t come back to him until the next day.”

  “But she did.”

  “Yeah, I did,” Eryn said. “But the separation anxiety wasn’t a nice experience to go through, especially when I still hadn’t come to grips with Wachei telling me he was a werewolf. If Ketah does this without Haven trusting him, it could do more damage than good.”

  “And I can tell you from watching Eryn suffer from it that I’d avoid putting your mate through it at all costs,” Carson said from where he sat in one of the armchairs. “I thought my sister was losing her mind. Christ, it was even hard for me to accept. Being almost killed by one of those dark wolves and having to have Wachei bite me to turn me to keep me alive brought it into perspec
tive really quick.”

  Edensaw met Ketah’s gaze. “I suggest you tell her what you are, get it out in the open and see how she reacts.”

  “Preferably somewhere she’ll find very hard to run from,” Wachei added.

  Ketah nodded slowly. He would tell Haven tomorrow. And he knew the place to reveal what he was to her. It would either go terribly bad or he’d be surprised and she’d easily accept what he told her. But he had a feeling it would end up being the first option, especially since he’d be rushing Haven into the new life he wanted with her.

  “I’ll do it tomorrow,” he said. “I only hope once Haven learns what she is to me, how I’d never leave and want an eternity with her, she might take it as a good thing. That was the main reason why she doesn’t trust me. She thinks I’ll leave her for someone younger and prettier. Her father did that to her mother, and Haven had to watch how her mom suffered until she died.”

  “We’ll hope it all goes well,” Cassidy said.

  “And I don’t envy you,” Durlach added. “This is the part I’ll dread when I find my mate, having to tell her the truth of what I am.” Kajakti and Capac quickly agreed with their wolf brother.

  Ketah remained sitting on the carpeted floor as he listened with half an ear to the conversation in the room move on to other things. As his granddaughter, Brice and Marta’s daughter, would have said, Ketah was screwed.

  * * * * *

  Haven pulled into the parking lot of the park the next morning and spotted the familiar crossover. Her heart sped up at the thought of seeing Ketah again. After their date ended the night before she’d done a lot of serious thinking about him. It hadn’t taken her long to realize she’d already started to fall for him. Being in his arms as he’d made her come had felt right.

  She also wanted to really believe him when he said he wanted a serious relationship with her. He made her want to take that leap of faith with him, to leave all her trust issues behind that would hold her back from having something good with Ketah.

  Haven got out of her SUV, taking her backpack from the passenger seat with her. She headed for the park’s main building and smiled when she saw Ketah push away from the wall and wait for her to join him. Once she did he took her into his arms and kissed her, just about stealing her breath.

  After he let her up for air, she asked, “What are you doing here? I thought I wouldn’t see you until after I got off work.”

  “I decided I couldn’t wait that long so I booked you as my guide for the day again.”

  “Not that I’m complaining, but you can’t do that every day.”

  He smiled. “I know. Go tell your boss you’re here, then let’s get ready to go.”

  Haven stepped out of Ketah’s embrace and did as he’d said. After a quick confirmation from her boss that Ketah had indeed booked her as his guide, she rejoined Ketah outside. He’d already put on his crampons and had his pack secured onto his back. It took her a few minutes to get hers onto her hiking boots, then they set out for the glacier.

  She started to take the same route they’d gone the day before once they were out on the ice, but Ketah grabbed her arm and pulled her in the other direction. Haven gave him a questioning look. “Where are we going?”

  “I want to show you something. It’s a bit of a walk but I think it will be worth it.”

  “Okay. You have me for the day so we can go wherever you want. Lead the way.”

  Ketah hadn’t been kidding about it being a long walk, but she had a feeling she knew where he was taking her—the Mantanuska Glacier cave in the Chugach Mountains. She didn’t normally take visitors to it since it was such a distance from the park entrance. A lot of people who came to the glacier wouldn’t have had the stamina to make the long trek there and back.

  Once they reached the ice cave, they stopped just inside the entrance and had a drink from the bottles of water they had in their backpacks. Haven pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and watched Ketah drink. He had yet to say why he’d decided to come to this particular spot.

  After he put his bottle away and she’d done the same, Haven said, “I’ve been here more than a few times.”

  “I figured you would have but I doubt you’ve seen what I’m going to show you.”

  He led her farther into the cave. She noticed the large hole about waist height in one of the walls that hadn’t been there the last time she’d gone there. Ketah handed her a flashlight. Haven bent and aimed the beam of light into the hole, then jerked upright with surprise.

  “There’s another cave in there,” she said.

  “I know. We can go inside. You’ll have to go headfirst through the hole.”

  Haven didn’t hesitate to do just that. Holding the flashlight out ahead of her, she climbed inside the only entrance and pulled herself through. It wasn’t as large as the outer cave, but it was big enough. And who knew how old it was. It could have been hidden from sight for thousands of years.

  “How did you find this?” she asked as she swept the flashlight around the cave once Ketah had climbed through the hole and stood beside her.

  “I didn’t.”

  Haven turned to look at him. “Did one of your friends?”

  “No.”

  Haven stared at Ketah. He looked as if he felt hesitant about something. His gaze flitted around the cave, then settled on her before jerking away again. She remained silent and waited for him to finally speak.

  He looked her right in the face, and said, “I didn’t have to find this cave or have someone show me where it was. This was where my wolf brothers and I slept for ten thousand years. My alpha’s mate found the six of us and she was the one who widened the hole enough to get inside.”

  Haven blinked, not sure if Ketah was pulling her leg. The expression he wore was serious without a hint of a smile. “You slept here for ten thousand years with five other guys?”

  “Yes. I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m a Tlingit hunter from the Ice Age. I’m also an immortal werewolf, one of the sentinels.”

  Okay, Haven didn’t have to worry about Ketah leaving her being the biggest problem she’d have to deal with when it came to him. After what he’d said, he had to be a nut job, or he was very good at pulling a prank.

  “You’re joking, right? You can’t be serious.”

  Ketah shook his head. “No, I’m not. I’d hoped to hold off on telling you all this until you’d gotten to know me better, but the dark wolves we were created to protect against are growing in number. If they find out you are my mate they could use you against me. Once I’ve claimed you, I can keep you safe.”

  “You do realize you sound a little bit crazy, right? What you told me is coming across as a big, made-up story. Werewolves, mates and Ice Age hunters are not found in the normal, everyday world.”

  “I know this is hard for you to believe but it’s all true. I’ll prove it to you.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. “All right, show me I’m wrong.” Not that she thought Ketah would be able to do any such thing.

  “Just don’t be afraid. It’ll still be me.”

  “Are you going to change into your werewolf form for me? Be some kind of half-man and half-wolf that stands on two legs and howls at the moon?”

  “No. That’s only in the movies. But I will shift into a wolf.”

  “Uh-huh. Okay, I’ll try not to freak.”

  Haven was all prepared for nothing to happen, to have Ketah admit he was trying to get one over on her. She stared at him intently, ready to tell him to give it up, when his body blurred and shimmered. Her arms slowly dropped to her sides as her gaze remained transfixed on Ketah. It all happened rather fast. One minute he was a man, and the next, he’d become a wolf with black fur. And he didn’t look like the timber wolves that were native to Alaska. He looked like the long-extinct dire wolf. His legs were a little bit shorter, his head a bit wider, and he was stockier than the ones she was used to. Plus, his teeth were bigger too. As part of being a guide, sh
e’d had to learn what animals would have roamed the glacier during the ice age.

  That’s when Haven’s heart beat faster and her fight-or-flight kicked in. Flight won out. She backed away from the dire wolf as quickly as she could, only to have her back slam up against one of the ice cave’s walls. She shot her gaze around the space, looking for the only way in and out. A small whimper escaped her. It was behind the wolf, and to reach it she’d have to work her way around it.

  Breathing fast, her heart thumping wildly, Haven kept her back to the wall as she slowly walked in the direction of her only escape route. She could do this. She’d get close enough and then make a run for the hole. So far the dire wolf didn’t act aggressive. In fact, he sat on his haunches and stared up at her, following her movements with his gaze.

  She came so close to making it, but the dire wolf stopped her from bolting. He stood and placed himself directly in front of the hole just as Haven tried to make a run for it. She whimpered and backed up again.

  Relax, Haven. I can hear your heart racing. I told you there is nothing to fear. It’s still me inside this wolf’s body.

  Haven let out a shriek as Ketah’s voice filled her mind. She shook her head. “No, no, no. This can’t be happening. This isn’t supposed to be possible. And I can’t have a damn dire wolf telepathically talking to me.”

  So you know what kind of wolf I am. We sentinels were the very first werewolves, and dire wolves were alive during the time we were turned. Modern-day werewolves become timber wolves.

  She ended up with her back against the ice wall from where she’d started. The more the wolf “talked” to her the more fearful she became. Her whole body shook, especially when he slowly stepped toward her. She whimpered again and slid to the cave’s floor as her legs finally gave out on her. The wolf Ketah had become came even closer. Haven held out her hands to ward him off. Her heart beat so fast she was surprised she didn’t pass out. Somehow she had to get out of the cave but she had a feeling the wolf wouldn’t let her.